“Cutting Edge Graphics and Carnage and Survival” are pretty exciting words to describe a game. These are the words used to describe the newly announced Strafe.          

There was a time when video games weren’t about terrorists and private military contracts. There was a time when games were about being stuck on a spaceship far from home. Primitive corridors that are dimly lit. Humming computers and systems all around you. Plenty of places for the enemy to come out and attack you. All you have is your mobility, firepower, and top-notch skills in finding keys and unlocking doors.

Against the 16-bit sprites an high resolution pixels, you set off on a massive quest to save the world through waves and waves of enemies standing at the other end of the barrel.  Harking back to the days of the mid 1990’s, where first-person shooters were radically different, Strafe seeks to put a modern spin on on a classic and begotten era in gaming development: the dawning of the modern 3D realm.

The mid-1990’s are often referred to as the true beginning of the modern first-person shooter. While there were other experimental attempts done in the 80s, with titles such as Battlezone, games like Wolfenstein 3-D and DOOM created the fundamental principles to which every single shooting video game would be built upon. Today, these mechanics are still used and are experimented with to create bigger and better shooters. Today, of course, the industry is much different.

Most shooters involve a cataclysmic event, multiplayer, some kind of imminent apocalyptic event, and expensive DLC. However, as we have clearly seen in various other games, the old days aren’t truly gone. The old days are coming back. Many games are adopting old fashioned game visuals and mechanics and bringing them into today’s world to great reception. In the sea of shooters, games like Strafe stand out.

The game is very early in its development but as it can clearly be seen, it hearkens back to an interesting point when shooters were literally just being made and released. Long before photo realism and well programmed ballistics, there were sprites and pixels.

The game has a visual style reminiscent of Mincecraft with its free-flowing blocks of color.  Details on story, game play, settings, scenarios, and enemies are also not known but the team is extremely enthusiastic about it and they have a Tumblr, twitter, and facebook page to check out for future updates.

Keep an eye on this one. It’s high in Earth orbit but it’ll make a landing pretty soon.